hello world! I am happy to report that Sofia and I completed the Inca Trail. We arrived Lima last night (1am) after being awake since 3am. Exhausted but so happy for a shower. I’ll slowly recap our trip so far which began in Cusco.
Our trip to Cusco was smooth with long layover in Lima and arrived Cusco Saturday evening. Everyone was a bit tired but Sofia and I walked to the tour company for the briefing. We stayed in San Blas neighborhood which is still very close to the center (plaza de Arma). The evening was lively and we instantly liked this cute colonial town
Lizzy and daddy stayed near by our airbnb and had dinner at a Thai restaurant. Lizzy seemed to suffer from high altitude sickness right away, feeling heavy breathing and light headache. Daddy also developed a headache right away. Sofia and myself had no symptoms, just tired by the time we got dinner, around 9pm. Sofia had the classic lomo salted
I had the vegan tacos
We all slept so so as the high altitude affected us more strongly overnight but we were excited to explore this cute city. The streets are narrow, up and down, with many small shops and restaurants. The city is 99% tourists which I can totally understand
the city is full of plazas
llamas as picture spot
we explored the San Pedro market, trying few local fruits, food, and saw guinea pigs (dead and clean) for sale. Yak! My 14 years old hiking boot sole fell off while walking, perfect timing to get it fixed before the hike. Thankfully!!!
Then we went to a vegan restaurant for lunch that is bohemian
vegan ceviche: loved the gigantic corns and potato
vegan pizza which the girls loved and Lizzy went back for it with daddy after Sofia and I left for Inca trail
vegan lomo saltado with potato, which I loved (the potatoes). Did you know that Peru has over 3500 type of potatoes and over 2000 types of corns? It’s heaven for me!
after lunch we went Lizzy back for rest as the high altitude affected her more than us. Sofia and I went exploring boutique shops. Later, I had a massage, then packed for our Inca trail which took longer than expected because I had to decide what to give for porters to carry, and what to carry ourselves.
We ended the day early as we would have an early start the next day 4:20am.
Overall, I find Cuzco quite cute and charming, a good base to explore the surroundings. Yet, it’s not for everyone given its high altitude (3400 meters, 11000 ft).
to be continued with our Inca Trail experience
Our New Journey 
I love hearing about your travels Coco! We are on our first family overseas holiday (Singapore) at the moment and while my boys are still little, reading about your adventures has me looking forward to the different things we can do when they’re bigger.
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Enjoy Singapore with your boys Elaine! It’s really fun to travel with kids, despite challenging when they are small.
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I’m excited to read about your experience! This is a bucket list item for me. How cool that you got to do this with Sofia! I am glad you guys handled the elevation ok. Elevation sickness is awful. I got it in Colorado when I was there a summer during college and it’s rough!!
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I got super behind on blog reading these past couple weeks, so I am trying to catch up! Looks like a very cute place and a great start to your trip! The altitude part doesn’t sound very fun, however… It definitely sounds like the right plan to allow time to adjust. I feel like I get headaches easily when I travel anyway (just at the beginning, after flying, travel etc) so I’d probably be like Tony and Lizzy, lol.
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